Hc certainly not doubting you. I think it must be for a case capacity reason or possably to insure that all brass comes out the same regardless of brand or type. if you ream it all then it will all end up close to the same. if that is the reason then personaly I would try to get some quanity of the same type of brass and just neck ream if you stick to the same type of parent brass then you should be able to come up with a good consistent load. this is a case were you need to seek out the experts. personaly I dont like messing with the base of a round as it is unknown waters for me. can you post the instructions or other links to this? it is very interesting stuff to say the least. perhaps leaving a lip inside causes cracking or some thing????

I once built an M1 carbine in 357 Automag. As there was no factory brass at the time so I had to make it. Unless you can figure out some way to ream it on a lathe, then just buy brass. Its too much work. It took about 8 hours to make 50 rounds. The resulting brass was good as I never had one split. Norma came out with 44 Automag brass and converting it was a lot easier. Never used the reamer again. Just my .02.

The guy I phoned at RCBS didn't know the fine points of neck reaming. He was reading from the (downloadable) instructions, and he said simply to ream the neck area like biggun stated. I have read the ream instructions for the .44 AutoMag and it shows the same thing.

My plan for now is to ream the neck only and expect to load lighter than I wish. This is one that I really want to push toward the right-hand side of the reload chart. I'll keep an eye on velocity, and how the converted brass groups vs. the factory brass and make adjustments from there.

I'm going to use a Lyman case trimmer, so I need to see if they have neck reamers available for it. If not I'll build one (shrugs)

Hc there are 4 forester lathe style case trimmers on ebay right now i suspect they will go cheap. it might pay to buy one and set it up just for that calibur and leave it set up. also there is a electric drill/screwdriver addapter avaliable for them might save some work.
just thought I would pass it along I find them by doing a search for reamer in sporting goods. the individual parts usualy come up by searching forester. i need a case trimmer cutter for the 444???? project myself.

onced you get the gun built and dialed in you can likely find a way to ream the case down to close to the bottom. I have been thinking it should not be that hard to make a reamer/cutter out of high spped steel or possably a old drill bit were only talking brass here

hehehehe I am still ahead of you HCPOOKIE!
I am having a friend load me rounds this weekend for me to start slinging lead. Got to silver solder gas block and drill gas hole. Im close, oh so close, happy days are here again......

Rear sight is done, ready to mount, got to find that damn missing mag but it cant run far...

I can send you more brass if you need it.
The whole forming thing? Forget it, buy the brass and lets SHOOT!

You need to understand, I have a pile of .308 "family" brass that have bad necks due mostly to bad ejection dings, and they are destined for the scrap pile if I don't recycle them into 45WinMag brass. Besides that, "just because I can" - just like climbing a mountain.

I have my .45 ACP barrel, and my order from LMS arrived last night, so I am back in business on my tools. I also repaired my spot welder.

Like I said before, I'm working back-to-front on this build, and now that I can get the buttstock finished, I'll be working on the magazine well. I'm still on the fence for mag well or locking lugs, but either way I think I am going to put an extension on the back of the lower trunion area so I don't have to worry about that extra space.

Oh BTW I looked into getting some parts made via eMachineShop, and I'm still suffering from sticker shock! Something like $200 for a gas block, unless I want to order 10 of them So I am going to stick with "Plan A" and weld this Chinese gas block onto a piece of 4130 steel tubing of the right diameter. More work, but much less cost!

Its not to hard to make a gas block from scratch on a mill. I built mine for the varmit build. although it is a a little bulky it works fine and could have been refined if Id had more time. I really wish Siaga 20 guage shootgun gas blocks were avaliable. BTW what was the price if you got 10 or more??? Im planing on at least 4 builds in the future with heavy barrels might be interestd in splitting the costs of a group buy if the price can be brought down. I wouldent be suprised if there are a few others who would like a GB with enough meat on it to be able to open up for big bore and heavy barrel builds. any one out there with some cnc equipment listening???

any source of cheap/free brass these days cant be passed up. if you can make them work why not? its not like you have to ream them every time you load just the first time. use a shell catcher and you will likely get 4-6 loadings out of the heavy 06 brass. many reloaders that shoot compition ream and turn necks its not that big of a deal to do it. it only takes seconds to cut and trim a 06 shell to size.

BTW what was the price if you got 10 or more??? Im planing on at least 4 builds in the future with heavy barrels might be interestd in splitting the costs of a group buy if the price can be brought down. I wouldent be suprised if there are a few others who would like a GB with enough meat on it to be able to open up for big bore and heavy barrel builds.

Here's what the tool quoted to me based on the Yugo gas block design, using 4130 with the "may be substituted for other materials" caveat. Completely rough finished.

The price for what I would get is what compels me to build my own as described. I would use a Yugo gas block if I had a spare, and weld it to the tubing. I will most likely build my own gas block for the 45-70 from a chunk of 4130 steel that I have. 3 holes and some shaping on the sides and I'm done.

On this rough sample, the bottom hole is .776" diameter (I guessed) and top hole is .600" diameter. Gas hole is 3/16" diameter. I would need to clean it up and adjust the hole locations to get it just right for an actual build. This was a rough draft just to get a ballpark figure. The first one I made was all smooth sides, and it was prohibitively expensive - like over $100 each for a 10- or 25- qty order!

You are correct to observe there are no bleed holes or recessed lips for a gas tube. I figure the final would have a camfered edge into which a gas tube could be inserted.